4: Risk and Resilience
by WIWJ
Summary: The next in the series after 'Back to The Bank' Will Max kill Woody? Will Jordan kill Max? Can Jordan handle the pressure? Read and see COMPLETE: installment five should be up as soon as tonight. Thanks for all the reviews.. lets get this baby born, huh?
1. years in review

**Risk and Resilience

* * *

**

"_Hoyt, what the hell did you do to my daughter?"

* * *

_

Woody blinked at Max Cavanaugh in shock before sputtering something and looked at Jordan. She moved her eyes from her father to her husband before tentatively stepping forward.

"Hello to you too, Dad." She said in a voice that was much calmer than she felt.

He looked at her body, to the paper and then finally back to Woody. He slowly shook his head.

"You finally get her to the alter and I miss it." A slow smile pulled across Woody's face as Max reached out his arm and clapped his hand down on his shoulder. He turned to Jordan warily "Hello Sweetheart."

Jordan smiled uncomfortably. She'd forgotten her father had sometimes called her that. Now it was just what Woody called her. It felt weird to hear her dad say it. It felt weird to hear her dad say anything. She felt Woody's hand on her back and she looked up at him. He smiled slightly sensing her shifting emotions. She darted her eyes back to Max. Who the hell did this guy think he was? She looked at her shoes.

" Jordan." She looked back at her father as he spoke. "I'm sorry I missed it." He held the paper up before swinging it back to his side and glancing awkwardly at Woody. "How's your head kid?"

Woody started to answer, but Jordan and her hormones took over.

"How's his head? You're sorry you missed it?" She bellowed angrily. "Where the hell have you been, Dad?" Woody put his hands on her shoulders in an attempt to calm her. It didn't work. "Don't you dare defend him Woodrow Hoyt!"

"Why the hell do I need defending! Last time I checked I'm a grown man free to come and go as I please, Jordan!" He shouted back from behind Woody's shoulder.

"Well what if I'm sick of the coming and going?" She shouted. "What if I'd finally gotten used to you being gone?"

"I come by to congratulate my daughter on her wedding and this is what I get?" Woody's head snapped back around to Max, then turned again with Jordan's tearful yell.

"Come by? Come by? As if you were right up the street or something, Dad? Well hell, I guess you could have been for all I know! I don't get to know the truth about things when you're involved."

"Don't you start this young lady!"

"Enough!" Woody yelled over the both of them, turning Jordan's body towards her father as he wrapped his arms around her from behind in support. "That's enough." His voice was softer this time, he moved his head to the side to look at his wife.

"Thank you, Max. It's good to see you." He said evenly. "I'm sure you knew that Jordan would have some questions for you. Maybe you could tell us what you've been up to over a beer?" He brought his lips down to Jordan's ear. "What do you think, Sweetheart?" She nodded as he released all but her hand, pulled her to the couch and waited for her too sit. He looked up at his father in law as he opened the refrigerator. "Why don't you come all the way in?" He suggested, pointing to a chair diagonal from Jordan. The older man nodded, stone faced walking to his appointed seat. Woody pulled two beers and a bottled water out of the fridge and returned to them.

"So I guess you've figured out our news." He said cheerfully sitting beside Jordan and handing her the water. She moved closer to him, soaking up his calm.

"When's my grandchild coming?" He said looking quickly at Jordan.

"January." Woody informed him. "Your _granddaughter_ will be here in January."

"You think you'll be around for that?" Jordan spat angrily, despite Woody's gentle stroking of her arm.

He said nothing, just hung his head uncomfortably.

"Where've you been, Max?" Woody asked, still trying to calm his wife. "A lot's happened. It would have been nice to have you around."

"I've been a few places. No where for long, nothing extraordinary." He avoided. Jordan shook her head, Woody caught her eyes with '_Calm down_', written all over his face. "I'd rather talk about what's been going on here."

"Well lets see." Jordan started, not even trying to keep the edge out of her voice. "Woody and I broke up before we ever really got together, on my birthday in a huge misunderstanding. I almost got shot by the Albanian Mob. Woody did get shot and almost died, causing what can only be described as a life altering experience that almost took him over the edge. I was held hostage with two dying children in a flooding cavern, Garret was replaced, reinstated and has become a raging alcoholic. I fooled around with a tabloid reporter until Woody got shot again. Then we got knocked up in an elevator and well you read about the rest in the paper." She looked at Woody. "Did I miss anything, Honey?"

Woody's wide eyes slammed shut as Max began to sputter out more questions. Jordan kept her piercing eyes on her husband, until he opened his again. He shook his head slowly, before looking back at her father.

"You were shot?" He spit the question out in his thickest Boston accent. Woody started to explain before Jordan interrupted again.

"Twice." She reminded him angrily.

"Are you all right?"

"Barely!" Jordan yelled. Woody's hands came down firmly on top of hers.

"My spleen ended up being the only casualty." He answered smiling.

"Barely!" Jordan yelled again. Woody grimaced as Max's face grew stony again. "How would it have felt, Dad, coming back here to find me in an institution because the **only** man who's ever **really **been there for me was dead?" He said nothing. "Say something!"

"What do you want me to say, Jordan? What do you need from me?"

"I _needed_ my father to be there for me!" She yelled.

"You're a grown woman, Jordan. At some point you're going to have to accept that it's not always about _you_!" Her body shuddered when he said that. She looked at Woody with wide eyes, he pressed his lips together.

"Jordan." He called after her as she stood up and moved as quickly as her pregnant body could manage, into the bedroom. "Sweetie, don't do this." She slammed the door. Woody looked at Max.

"Was it something I said?" He asked sarcastically. Woody hung his head for a moment, before shaking it.

"No, it was something I said." He told him discarding Max's confused expression. "Maybe you should go." He admitted. "Give me some time to cool her down. She has dinner plans with Lily. You could come back while she's gone and I could catch you up on everything. Then maybe she'll be ready to talk."

Max nodded at his son-in-law, rising to his feet and casting a glance in the direction his daughter had gone.

"A tabloid reporter?" Max grimaced. Woody shook his head looking like he had a bitter taste in his mouth. "God, I'm glad this was you, Woody." He held up the newspaper article about their wedding.

Thanks Max." He laughed. "Me too."

* * *

"Can I come in?" He asked cautiously, not knowing who she was mad at.

"Is he gone?" She whimpered, turning her teary eyes to him. "Did he leave?"

"He's coming back later tonight." Woody said soothingly. "We'll get this all worked out, Sweetheart."

"Come here." She ordered reaching her arm out towards him.

"You're not mad at me?"

"For something you said two years ago?" She smirked. "I think I'll let it slide. Especially since you've apologized about a thousand times." He slipped onto the bed behind her and wrapped his arms around her body. His fingers skimmed the edge of her shirt, tracing the smooth skin around her abdomen. "And hey, apparently you were right."

"Shh, Stop it." He said softly. "He didn't mean it."

"Didn't he?"

"No. He was just being defensive. Cavanaugh's say crazy things when they feel attacked." He smiled and pressed his lips against her neck. "Like admitting to their fathers that they got knocked up in an elevator."

"Oh my God, tell me I did not say that." She whined.

"Oh yes, my beautiful wife, you did." He chuckled.

"Do you have to go back tomorrow? Couldn't we just take one more day to regroup?" She begged turning in his arms.

"No. We have got to go back to work Jordan. The quicker we do the less it will hurt. It's like a band aide."

"I like to let my band aides fall off by themselves." She informed him. He kissed her cheek.

"Of course you do." He watched her smile, closing her eyes. "Lily won't be here for another hour. You should sleep."

"I'm wasting our last day." She complained.

"It's not our last day Jordan. We have lots of days. We aren't going to be able to take naps in the middle of most of them though." He kissed her head.

"Stay." She ordered, squirming closer to him. He pulled her in tightly.

"Okay, but if your little clone there wakes you up, keep it to yourself." He joked, casting a look of feigned irritation at her stomach. Jordan shook her head.

"She's sleeping. She sleeps during the day."

"Of course she does." Woody rolled his eyes in anticipation of the coming months.

"Shh. Sleep." He pressed his lips to her forehead and did as she requested.

* * *

"Wow." Max said calmly as Woody finished explaining the course of events that had transpired since he'd been gone. He left out the part about the elevator. "That's.. you two have very interesting lives."

"Jordan calls them cursed." Woody laughed.

"Jordan... would." He decided.

"She's changed, Max." He told his father in law. "Since the shooting. We both have." Max nodded.

"You've definitely changed, Woody." He said remorsefully. "No one should have to go through something like that."

"Yeah well," He looked out the window of the apartment. "It was worse for, Jordan. The whole abandonment thing, you know? It's stuck with her. She's still pretty sure I'm going to vanish at any moment."

"I'm not sure I've been much help to you there, Son." Max snickered at him. Woody grinned at being called Son. It had been a long time. Max noticed immediately, guilt of his departure radiated through him. Jordan was right, they had needed him.

"We do okay on our own." Woody reminded him, bringing his feelings back down to acceptable levels of remorse. "It's nice to have you back though, like old times." He held up the beer to the older man. "I miss that bar though."

"Me too." Max hollered.

"We've been there once or twice. We went there last Christmas for the morgue party. It wasn't the same though." Woody confessed, before smiling at the memory of last Christmas. Who could've known where a simple dance would end up?

"How's her pregnancy been so far?" Max said switching topics while Woody had gotten lost in nostalgia. "Emily had a really tough time with both of hers. Terrible morning sickness. It was ugly."

"See." Woody said quietly. "This is the sort of stuff it would be nice to have known." He cast his eyes up at Max. "Maybe then I wouldn't have been so panicked."

"Bad huh?"

"Yeah, for eleven really long weeks." He remembered.

"You lucked out. With James, Emily was sick for two trimesters." He smirked as Woody grimaced at him.

"Well that gives me something to look forward too next time around." He laughed, shaking his head.

"I recommend lots of drugs for the delivery." He said honestly.

"For her or me?" Woody laughed.

"Both of you. Take what ever they offer." Max tilted the beer back up towards Woody.

"You gonna stick around, Grandpa?" His eyes met Max's. "You're the only grandparent this little girl has got left."

"I'm not sure her mother wants me to stay, Woody." Woody watched his head shake sadly. "I'm not even sure it's a good idea if I do."

"She's afraid." Woody confessed slowly. "That she'll need you too much and you'll leave again. She's afraid that the drama will come back along with you. All the past she's fought so hard to get over, it all trickles back in when you walk through the door." He met Max's eyes and continued his honest appraisal of his wife's persona. "The secrets and lies almost destroyed her Max. It nearly destroyed any chance she and I had." He looked back at her hands. "You were probably right to think it was a bad idea to come back, but you're here now and leaving again would just rake her over the coals again. I won't let you keep doing that to her. I can't sit here and watch you hurt her over and over. The lies and secrets have to stop."

"What's your solution, Hoyt? That I tell my pregnant daughter all the sorted details of her tragic childhood?" Max waited for Woody to look up. "You don't think that would hurt her more than my leaving?"

"She knows the details now, Max. She and I've filled in most of the blanks." He shook his head. "She just needs you to stop pretending, she needs reality."

"Maybe I should give her some more time." Cavanaugh decided, looking at his daughter's husband.

"I think the best thing for you to do is get yourself settled in somewhere nearby. Let her decide what kind of relationship she wants to have with you, what kind of relationship she wants you to have with the baby." He shook his head. "She's changed Max. She'll handle this in her own way. Just don't go too far."

Max Cavanaugh nodded looking seriously at Woody. He was a damn good man and her daughter was lucky to have him.

* * *

"Is he gone?" Jordan asked into her cell phone from the safety of Lily's car.

"Yes Jordan. You can come in now." She glanced up at the windows of their apartment watching him flip the shade back, looking down towards Lily's car.

She closed her phone and said goodnight to Lily. Climbing the steps to her door. He was waiting for her in the door frame and she melted tiredly into his embrace. He lifted her off of her feet and carried her into the bedroom, silently handing her the note her father had left for her.

_Jordan,_

_I'll be at the house if you need me. Worry about your own family now. We have time. I'm not going anywhere. You've got yourself one hell of a husband. He loves you very much, don't forget that._

_Love,_

_Dad_

She refolded the note as he took off her shoes. She knew how lucky she was to have him. No one had to remind her of that. He slid down the pair of maternity jeans she was wearing, leaving her in her T-shirt and gigantic pregnant woman panties. He joined her on the bed.

"What did he say?" Woody asked looking into her eyes cautiously, wondering if Max heeded his advice.

"That he'll be around for a while." She watched him as he pulled the blankets around the two of them and settled against her. "And some things I already knew." Woody nodded willing to leave it at that. She closed her eyes leaning into his embrace. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me you know that?" He hummed and kissed her on the back of her neck in confirmation. Her breathing slowed and she drifted off to sleep vaguely aware of the increasing movement of their little girl under her ribs.


	2. The pressure

She didn't ever go see her father, letting the weeks stretch into months. She knew Woody was seeing him and she had to admit she was glad. It wasn't that she didn't want him back, she just couldn't handle it right now. Stiles had thought that was a good decision, a testament to how far she'd grown since Max had been gone.

As hard as she'd yelled at Woody for calling the little head shrink, she knew he was right. It did help talking to him. It was getting a lot easier too. She wondered sometimes if Woody still spoke to Tallulah in her official capacity as his shrink. Seeing how Woody had to be her husband, and the amazing patients he continued to have with her, probably.

Jordan knew for a fact that he had lunch with her Dad every Tuesday. He'd convinced Lily to create a sudden need for the morgue gang to have lunch, alone each Tuesday. Despite the aggravation and everyone's knowledge that this was only to quash Jordan's crazy moods, it had turned out to be fun. In fact, it was Tuesday and she was actually _glad_.

"Morning." She said to Lily as she wandered into her office.

"How you doing?" Jordan rolled her chair back from her desk and swung herself around to Lily. She shook her head.

"How does it look like I'm doing?" Lily made a sympathetic face, it didn't look like she was doing very well. "I'll live." She grinned at Lily, not wanting to scare her away from reproduction all together. "What's up?"

"It was Bugs turn to pick lunch and he picked Thai. You want me to order you something else? I could have him grab it when he brings the in the completely un-pregnancy friendly, sodium and spicy crap he wanted. It would serve him right." Jordan smiled.

"Nah, I'll have Woody bring me something on his way to my Dad's…" She watched Lily's eyes widen and she grimaced. "I mean on his way to lunch with Lu and Seely. Talk about being the third wheel, huh?" She tried to redirect her friend away from her slip.

"You know?" Lily breathed.

"There is only one thing Woody sucks at, lying." Jordan confessed. "Well that and tie selection."

"You've known all along?" Lily grinned when Jordan nodded, rolling her eyes. "Don't you dare tell the guys! They'll kill me! _They'll kill Woody_!"

"My lips are sealed. Yours too. Woody, can't know I'm on to him." She picked up the phone and dialed his number. "Honey? Yeah I'm fine listen, Bug chose Thai food for our stupid little lunch bunch." She winked at Lily. "If you want to sleep tonight, I suggest you bring me something from the deli on your way out. Will Lu and Matt wait for you? Are you sure? Thanks Woods. I love you, too." She hung up the phone and looked at Lily. "I on the other hand, am a master liar." They giggled.

* * *

"I swear to God, my wife thinks she's the best liar in the entire world." He shook his head. "I always know. Do you know how I always know?" He looked at Lu, she raised her eyebrows. "She over sells it. She always adds _just a little_ too much. '_Will Lu and Matt wait for you?_' come on, Jordan would never think of that. If she wasn't lying she would have just said '_Woody bring me a sandwich_.'" He shook his head. Lu Simmons tried not to roll her eyes. "It's all about the over sell." 

"So why don't you just tell her you know she knows?" Tallulah asked absently. Woody looked at her like she was insane.

"No, no, no! She doesn't need to know, that I know she knows." He sputtered.

"Damn, that was a lot of 'No's', Hoyt." Woody watched his partner try not to light up as Matt Seely walked into the room. "Who doesn't know what?"

"Nothing." Woody said quickly.

"Where do you want to go to lunch today, Luce?" Woody grimaced, he wasn't fond of the little pet name Seely had for her.

"Maybe O'Mally's" She said hopefully. He grinned at her winking his slick little eye.

"What ever you want, Lucy, my dear." He winked again before leaving their office. Woody looked at her and shook his head.

"What?" She squeaked he gave her a look to say '_you know what,'_ she put her hand up. "Worry about your wife and her knowledge." He shrugged his shoulders at her and sat down again. "He was your friend before I even met him." She challenged, tossing her preverbial chips into the pot.

"Friend is a very liberal term, Tallulah." He upped the anti with her full name.

"He's a good guy, Woodrow." She saw his bet.

"He's like a annoying little puppy, Doctor." He raised her.

"Your wife says he's a lot like you were when you two first met, _Detective_." Shit. She'd called on him, throwing in an insider insult and using his official title. He smirked at her. She smiled smugly at her imaginary winnings.

"Jordan says lots of things." He muttered.

"Let it go, Hoyt." She looked down at the phone on her desk as it started to ring. Woody's eyebrows rose in excitement, a body.

* * *

"Hey." Garret walked into Jordan's office quickly. "How you doing?" 

Jordan was going to loose it if one more person asked her that, but she smiled sweetly.

"Fine. I'm fine." Truthfully? She felt like shit, but hell if she was going to tell any of them. "What's up?"

"Bug just called from his crime scene he's bringing in a body. Woody wanted you to do the preliminary." A real smile broke out on her face. Since she'd stopped going out on calls two weeks ago, she'd been bored stiff. She reminded herself to thank her husband for throwing her a bone. "Ten minutes?"

Jordan nodded as Garret walked away. She pulled herself to her feet. _Too fast!_ Her body buckled. She had to grip the back of her chair to keep from falling over. _This_ _sucks_. She thought for the hundredth time today, as she walking more slowly towards trace, her head pounding.

She had managed to stuff herself into scrubs by the time her husband got back with Bug and the body. He took one look at her and knew she was miserable.

"I'm fine." She told him putting up her hand before he could say a word. "Just to much sitting and being silent. I'm not designed for that." He gave her a look. "I'm fine. Let's see what you've got."

Bug started to rattle off relevant details of the crime scene as Nigel wandered in with the evidence Woody had brought him. Jordan started looking over the body, going slowly through the motions that were burned into her subconscious. She scanned the body for obvious, started documenting the visible marks.

The guys took there usual stations around trace, moving around like cogs of a machine. The same old routine. The dance they all had the choreography worked out to.

It wasn't until her vision blurred quickly, that she shot a frightened glance at Woody. He wasn't looking at her. Lily had come to the door they were talking about something. Jordan couldn't hear them. The room was spinning.

"Woods?" He raised his eyebrows and leaned back to look at her casually over his shoulder. His eyes hit her as her body dropped to the floor with a hard smack.


	3. if, hopefully and not necessarily

"Woods?" Her voice was soft and shaky. Bug had turned around from the screen he was looking at, thinking Jordan had found something disturbing. He saw the look of panic rush across her face just before she hit the ground her body trembled and postured slightly before slipping into a quiet stillness.

"Jordan!" Woody leapt of the edge of the desk he was perched on and rushed to where his wife had landed.

"Oh my God!" Lily yelped rushing over to the phone on the wall and calling for an ambulance. Bug knelt down on the floor beside Woody who was frantically moving his hand across Jordan's face.

"Jordan? Jordan, Sweetheart? Can you hear me?" His voice cracked with fear, he looked helplessly at Bug. He was studying her intently.

"Was she this swollen this morning?" He asked Woody holding up Jordan's fingers for him to look at.

"Wha-?" He shook his head. "I don't know. What's wrong?"

"Nigel toss me a cuff." He ordered, the Brit. rummaged though a drawer on the other side of the room. Tossing a blood pressure cuff roughly towards his friends. Woody caught it in mid air and handed it to Bug. Woody began to speak as Bug watched the clock. "Shhh, shhh!" He demanded, counting. His eyes widened, as his gaze flew back to Nigel. "She's eclamptic."

"What's that mean?" Woody begged, grabbing the cuff of Bug's scrub top.

"How high?" Nigel interrupted.

"160 over 110." Bug said, his always even voice catching in his throat. Woody gasped at that, still having no idea what was going on.

"Holy God." Nigel yelled busting open the doors to the hall. "We need the paramedics! Someone wait for the bloody paramedics!"

* * *

"Woody you have got to calm down." Lily demanded rubbing the back of the detectives neck. "Breath into the bag or I'm going to have them triage _you_." 

Woody fought the urge to push her away and demand to know what was happening to his wife. He didn't, still feeling the pain of not being able to catch his breath. She held the bag up to his face, his hands wrapping tightly around hers.

"Better, better. That's better." Lily encouraged, leaning into him. "She's strong Woody remember that, she's a very strong person." Woody nodded, not feeling encouraged at all. She hadn't looked strong when she crashed to the cold tile floor taking a tray of instruments clattering down with her. He'd known when he saw her something was wrong.

"Why in the hell did I let her wave me away?" He said softly as Lily pulled the bag away from his face. He savored the calm feeling of the breath filling his tired lungs. "I knew something was-." He looked up to see the attending walking over to them."

"Detective Hoyt. Your wife is stable for now. Your friends were correct. She is suffering from eclampsia.

She hadn't had any problems with blood pressure or protien at her prenatal visits?" Woody shook his head.

"We haven't been this month." He told the man. "We go tomorrow."

"We're giving her magnesium sulfate to get her pressure down." The doctor told him. "If it works, everything should be a lot calmer by tomorrow. We'll give her some medication and send her home in a few days."

"If?"

"The only cure is delivery, Detective." The doctor said bleakly.

"She.. She has.. It's too soon." Lily put her arm up to steady him as the weight of what was about to occur hit him.

"Not necessarily." The doctor said honestly. "It's soon, but babies born earlier than this can survive with out many complications up to fifty five percent of the time." Lily staggered back as Woody lost his footing. The small woman some how managed to lead him back to the chair after he pushed away from the doctors offering arm. _50/50_? Woody thought. "We're considering steroid therapy and some other things that would increase the odds for the fetus." The _fetus_, his daughter, their daughter. "It's still too soon for that though. I just want you to keep it in mind. We're waiting for your wife's body to respond to treatment." _Body_. In their line of work, that word meant something different. Woody looked up at the man again.

"What-? What would happen to Jordan if..?" He asked warily. The man gave him a long hard look before speaking. He glanced at Lily who nodded. He need to know if the time came for him to make a decision. The Doctor slowly and calmly went through the list of possibilities; brain damage seizure, coma, heart attack, stroke. He hadn't even gotten to the risks to the baby, when Woody stood up and unceremoniously puked his guts out in the trash can. He closed his eyes, wiping his mouth on his sleeve and leaning against the wall. "Oh God." The soft whisper slipped out from between his lips.


	4. good friends we have

Bug was in the room when the doctor lead Woody back after his latest update. He had her chart in his hands reading it carefully as if it was a file from the morgue.

"Her pressures back on the high side of normal, Woody" Bug said softly, looking at the read out of the automatic cuff, 140/80 "That's a good sign."

"Then why isn't she awake?" He whispered tracing his finger up and down the edge of her face.

"She had two seizures. She'll probably sleep for a while." He told him. "That's normal too."

"None of this is normal." Woody snapped back at his friend. Bug set his hand on his shoulder.

"She looks good." He told her, Woody shot him a remorseful glance, Bug shrugged his shoulders. "But what do I know, I cut up dead people." Woody smiled.

"You sound like her."

"_What the hell happened_!" Woody heard Max's voice boom from the hall. This was the part he was dreading. He didn't want to have this conversation.

"Bug will you stay with her?" The shorter man nodded and watched with out a touch of jealously as Woody went to talk to Jordan's father.

Woody took a deep breath and walked through the door.

"Woodrow what in the hell is going on here?" Max looked from Woody to Nigel, to the doctor Nigel had been talking with. "Lily calls me and tells me Jordan's in the hospital and that you've asked me not to come. What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Woody met his eyes, forcing the fatigue and fear down.

"It means that she needs to stay calm. Her blood pressure was sky high. It's a miracle she doesn't have major organ damage. They've finally gotten it down. We're waiting for her to wake up. When that happens she's going to have some pretty hefty restrictions put on her and that's going to make her crazy enough. I don't-."

"…need me around stirring her up anymore." Max finished as Woody nodded. "I got you."

"I should have called you myself." Woody said apologetically. "I thought Lily would be better at it then I would. I'm sorry." Max waved his hand like he was physically sweeping away Woody's words. "Do you want to see her before she wakes up?" Max nodded and let Woody put his hand on his shoulder and guide him into Jordan's room.

He watched his father in laws shoulders quake at the sight of Jordan's tiny pregnant body and the massive amounts of equipment surrounding her. He kissed her head and reluctantly rested his hand over her stomach.

"You be okay kid." He told Jordan. Then looking at the bump that was his granddaughter. "You, you're just like your mother. Always causing trouble and making your Dad here pull his hair out." Woody sniffed out a teary laugh before Max grasped his shoulders, looking deep into him before walking out of the room. "She'll be all right, Son." He mused. "She's a fighter."

With that he was gone. Woody wondered if maybe it was for good, and if maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. He turned back to his wife, tears slipping down his cheeks. He sat beside the bed, dropping his tired head into her outstretched hand. Pressing against the warmth of her. He tried to force the image of her on the ground from his head. She was going to be okay. They were both going to be okay.

"You don't have to fight this time, Sweetheart." He mumbled into her side. "You just have to relax. I know that's hard for you Jordan, but you're going to have to try."

He heard heals clipping against the tile floor behind him and he turned slightly to see his partner. Simmons' face fell, looking from Woody to the bed then back to Woody. An eerie sound escaped his lips and he started to cry harder. The little blonde dropped in front of him, collecting her friend into her arms.

Matt Seely rushed around the corner behind his girlfriend, stopping at the sight before him. With one hand still wrapped around the back of Woody's head pressing it firmly into his shoulder, Lu turned slightly towards him. He broke his eyes off of her and glanced around the room before looking at Jordan. Matt walked forward and laid his hand on his friends back, running his fingers through Tallulah's hair. _This was bad_.

* * *

Bug and Matt Seely had formed a rather strange bond. The People Rejected by Lily Club, the detective had called it one day long before he'd fallen in love with Tallulah Simmons. So he was glad it was Bug that was sitting in the hall when he slipped out of Jordan's hospital room leaving Lu to comfort her partner. 

"Hey." Bug said as Matt sat across from him in another row of plastic chairs.

"Is she as bad as she looks?" Matt asked honestly, showing much more concern for Jordan than anyone would have expected. Bug knew they'd been double dating, more a concoction of Lu and Jordan's strange little friendship than of Matt Seely's desire, but they were seeing a lot of each other.

"She's actually a lot better now." Bug admitted. Matt closed his eyes, flashing a nasty look.

"Woody's a fucking mess." He rambled. "There goes any hope I have of getting my girlfriend out of here anytime soon." Bug knew Matt well enough to know that this was how he dealt with stress. He could tell he was just as worried about Jordan and the rest of them. It was written all over his ashen face. "I guess I should get comfortable."

"She's going to be all right." Bug said supportively.

"Where's Nigel?" Matt looked around for the Brit. "I thought you two were only allowed ten feet away from each other at all times." Bug shook his head in annoyance.

"He went with Lily. Brandu's car's in the shop needed hers, Nige's gonna bring her back up." Matt made a face.

"That must be fun for you." The detective shook his head as Bug shrugged unconvincingly. "We need to find you a woman. What are you anyway? Indian or Middle Eastern?"

Bug closed his eyes and prepared to rip into his 'friend', when he looked up and saw Lily rushing towards them with Nigel trying hard to keep up.

"Who's hanging out with the dead people if you're all here?" Matt asked from his chair.

"Garret and Sydney." Lily said softly immune as the rest of them to Matt's strangely consistent lack of tact. "How is she?"

"Same." Bug said flatly.

"Is that good or bad?" You couldn't ever tell with Bug.

"It's.. normal." He provided.

"As long as her bloody blood pressure stays down she's going to be fine." Nigel told her. Matt laughed.

"Her 'bloody' blood pressure?" He repeated.

"Why are you here?" Nigel spit at him.

"Hey, they're my friends too." Nigel started to say something else but Bug stopped him.

"Woody needs all of us here." He said raising his always even tone slightly enough to get everyone's attention. "Sit." He said to Nigel. He sat.

"Now what?" Lily asked breathlessly.

"We sit and wait on Jordan, Luv." Nigel told her, putting his arm around her shoulder.


	5. good friends we've lost?

"Detective?" Garret hadn't expected to find her when he'd walked into Jordan's room. He wondered when Tallulah Simmons had become someone to sit at Jordan's bedside. Not that it wasn't possible that Garret could have failed to notice that the two had become blood sisters or something. Garret Macy spent a lot of time in an alcohol induced haze.

"Dr. Macy." She looked up at him with her pretty eyes. He remembered Jordan's voice last year in the break room talking to Nigel.

"_Why does she have to be so damn pretty? And smart. And sweet. He's totally fixated on her. I have no chance in hell to get him back now. Not that I deserve him." _

"_Come on, Luv." Nigel had said quietly. "First of all, you have a boyfriend, second, Woody Hoyt will never love anyone but you as long as he lives. But she is gorgeous. I will give you that." _

When had they become friends?

"I made Woody go get something to eat with Matt." She said softly looking back towards Jordan. "She's doing really well. Her vitals, and the baby's are perfect. They think she'll wake up in a few hours." Garret nodded.

"Where is everyone else?"

"AD Brandu picked up Lily about an hour ago. Nigel went back to the morgue and I think Bug went home. Sydney just called Woody and said he'd be up in the morning."

He nodded. He did know, even in his current state, that Woody and Sydney had become good friends. In fact he knew it had been Woody who talked the man out of leaving the morgue last year.

"Max?" He asked.

"Come and gone. Woody didn't think it was a good idea." Lu explained. Garret scowled. Max was her father. "I have to say, Howard and I agree."

"Stiles was here?" She nodded. He wasn't aware that the man was still even a part of Jordan's life. He had been surprised to see him at the wedding. He was starting to wonder what the hell else he wasn't aware of. _Wait, did she say Brandu picked up Lily? _

"Dr. M?" Woody's voice broke him out of his contemplation.

"Woody."

"She's still out?" He looked at Lu's face. She smiled and nodded. "That's really okay Dr. M? She's been asleep since it happened."

"She had a seizure Woody, it's normal."

"She had two." He whispered as Tallulah moved for him to sit. "She had another in the ambulance."

"What's her pressure now?" Garret looked at Jordan in alarm.

"130 over 80." Lu reported looking at the read out. "It's still falling nicely."

"Dr. Milar was here. Her OB. She said Jordan's pressure has never been higher than 120/80. She's been perfect. Even when she was sick." He shook his head. "This came out of no where." They all sat in silence for a long time. It was Jordan's weak voice that finallybroke it.

"Wh-?" Jordan had begun rustling on the bed. Woody's eyes snapped to his wife. "Where?"

"Hey Sweetheart." He stood up only to bend back down over her. The warmth of relief in his voice made Garret smile. "How you doing?"

"Woody?" He moved his hand around the edge of her face and into her hair. "Wha-?"

"You're at the hospital, Jordan. Everything's all right. You and the baby are going to be fine." Woody spoke softly to her. "You're blood pressure was a little too high." The understatement of Woody's comment almost made the Chief ME laugh.

Lu made her way past Garret and started to the hall to find the doctor. Macy leaned over to check Jordan's blood pressure read outs. They had stayed consistent.

"I don't feel good." Jordan said absently. "My.. I.."

"It's okay, Jordan." He told her.

"I'm sorry." She whimpered. "I should have told you. I'm-."

"Shh!" Woody's voice slipped to an even softer tone. "It's fine. It's not your fault. Sweetheart everything's fine."

Garret started feeling like a voyeur, he made his way wordlessly out of the room. Lu was walking back towards him.

"They're sending someone up." She reported, glancing down towards Detective Seely who was asleep, drooling in one of the chairs. "I should probably get him home. Are you going to stay?"

"No." Garret decided feeling incredibly unneeded in this whole situation. He hadn't seen any of the warning signs. He wasn't there to help her when she collapsed. He hadn't made it to the hospital until now, only to find that Lu Simmons and _Seely_ had it all under control. "No, they should be alone."

"I'm going to say goodnight." She said slipping past him once again. This time she kicked Seely's boot hard with her high healed foot. "Matt, lets go."

The man rubbed his eyes and self consciously wiped his droolly face.

"Kay." He looked up squinting at Macy. "When the hell'd you finally get here?"

"Shut up." Garret said blankly.

* * *

Woody had climbed up into the bed with her after the doctors had all come and gone. She looked at him, her eyes becoming more and more alert with each minute.

"I have a bruise." She complained rubbing her shoulder. He nodded.

"You hit the ground hard." He informed her, and this time she nodded.

"When did they stop the magnesium sulfate?" She said in her doctor voice.

"Three thirty." Her face knotted into confusion. _How long had she been out_?

"What time is it now?" She asked her eyebrows ruffling together.

"Almost nine." He yawned, missing her shocked expression. "You've been out for eleven hours." She blinked at him.

"You must have been.." Her voice trailed off and he smiled. For the first time she noticed the redness of his eyes and the blotchy condition of his always perfect skin.

"Everyone was here with me." He said softly, wanting her to know he hadn't been alone. "Bug came with us in the ambulance. He was here all day. Lu and Matt just left. Nige, Lily.." He left out Garret and her father, worried that either of the two might upset her. "They were great." She nodded wiggling closer to him, burrowing in to his body as much for comfort as too comfort. "Things are going to have to change, Jordan." He said softly. "No more working full time, even after you're off bed rest. They're going to put you on medication. We're going to half to really monitor your blood pressure like eight times a day. No more salt, no more stress. Calm, Jordan, you're going to have to stay calm." She nodded into him, knowing better to argue with him at all.

She let it be quiet for a while before she spoke.

"Was my dad here?" Her voice was low, but clear. She felt Woody's grip tighten.

"Yeah. He was here." He told her cautiously

"Good." She whispered.

"Do you want me to call him?"

"No." She answered honestly. "I just wanted to know if he came."

"He did, Sweetheart." She nodded again.

"You should sleep." She whispered pulling back from him and smoothing her hand across his tired face. "You look like death." He smiled shaking his head at her.

"What are you going to do? You can't be tired." He chuckled, his eyes already closing.

"I'll watch TV or read or something. Sleep." She told him.

"Jordan I'm too wound up. I'll never sleep. I just want to stare at you and the fetal monitor all night." He shook his head and smiled again.

She took his hand and put it to her stomach just above the monitor. He could feel the baby squirming to get comfortable. He lifted his fingers up into Jordan's. She pulled them tightly in between her own and pressed his hand against the movements.

"Feel that?" He nodded. "We're okay. Go to sleep." He nodded again as Jordan wiped and escaping tear of relief off his cheek. She kissed his temple softly. "Go to sleep."

She watched him for a few minutes to make sure he was before she turned on the TV quietly and settled back to watch something calming.


	6. everythings gonna be alright

"Garret!" Jordan's voice was light and happy. Macy had to smile when he heard it. "Long time no see. You been hiding from me?"

She knew why he hadn't come. He was a stressor. She wasn't sure if Woody had forbid it or if Garret had just decided on his own that he not visit right away.

"Oh Jordan no one can hide from you. You're like a blood hound." He said dryly before dropping into the chair by her bed. She was sitting up, dressed in maternity sweats, her hair pulled up in a high ponytail and lipstick across her mouth. A far cry from three days ago. "Speaking of blood hounds, where's Woody?"

"Lu needed his help with a lead on a case. I think he was happy to go." She smiled. "I was certainly happy when Lu agreed to call him and say she needed help with a lead on a case." Jordan lifted her eyebrows and let them drop with her secret. He smiled now too. "I love that man, but I swear he was driving me crazy." He listened to the automatic blood pressure cup inflate. She didn't seem to notice until she caught him leaning over to check it's reading on the machine behind him. "It beeps if it goes higher than the previous reading, Garret." She said catching him. "It's only beeped once and that's when they were taking blood and the couldn't get a vein. It hurt like hell and I started beeping like crazy. It still never went to dangerous levels." She changed her voice to a spooky one when she said the last two words. He laughed. "I'm going home tomorrow. I'm fine."

"What about Woody?" Garret had spoken to the frazzled detective serveral times in the last few days. He knew how Woody was, he wanted to know if Jordan did.

"Woody's Woody." She answered sweetly looking at him with 'I love him' eyes. It almost made Garret sick and he didn't really know why. "He's strung out and over protective. What's new?"

He was about to tell her that Woody was hardly over protective. He let her get away with murder at work, at play and even now during pregnancy. He was more than lenient. Jordan just managed to give him a lot to worry about.

"He loves me and I'm not easy to love." She finished with a grin on her face. Garret wanted to tell her that she wasn't difficult to love, but he wasn't sure he should say anything to emotionally charged given the present conditions of both her health and their relationship.

"How's work?" She asked greedily leaning in for a piece of the fun.

"Slow." He lied not biting. He was determined to be the voice of calm.

"Renee was here." Jordan said making _his_ blood pressure rise. "She brought me those." Jordan gestured at the vase of carnations behind him. "That was almost nice of her. She offered us Christopher's baby furniture. It's pretty nice, a dark cherry wood. I think Woody's going to go get it."

He nodded. He'd seen Renee's son's baby furniture, it was nice.

"Garret?" Her voice was soft and serious. He worriedly listened for beeping, knowing she was about to start actually talking to him. "I hope, after all this settles down. You and I can start.." He watched her struggle to find the words. Still no beeping. " I hope we can figure out away to really be friends again. That we can get things back to how they were between us."

_How can they, _he thought_. You don't need me now. You have your friends, and your father's back. You have Woody and he's all you ever really needed anyway._

"I'd like that, Jordan." _Even though it's never going to happen because I betrayed your trust. I've lied to you more times than I can count and I'm still lying to you now about my so called sobriety. When I poured out that bottle? It was for all of you, for show. It's not like there wasn't more where that came from. _"I'd like that a lot."

"Good then. Let me finish gestating and we'll talk." He grimaced at her choice of words, slowly shaking his head at her. He was glad she was happy. She deserved to be happy. He knew he'd had a hand in getting her where she was today and it made him proud. "But Woody's going to be back soon, and I'm not sure his blood pressure could take seeing you here. _Stress'n_ me out." She laughed. Garret nodded again, leaning in and kissing her cheek. "I'll be back at the office before you know it."

He believed her.

* * *

"No." He said firmly.

"Woody listen to me." She begged.

"I said no." He reminded her.

"Just for an hour?" She pleaded.

"Jordan, we just walked in the door." He whined. "I'm not taking you to the morgue.

"We've been home for five hours." She told him. "I need stuff out of my office."

He shook his head and she shot him another pleading expression.

"Write me a list and I'll pick it up tomorrow." He looked at his watch. "Go take your blood pressure." She made a face, then felt guilty when she saw his. She went and took her blood pressure.

He was spreading out all of the pregnancy books on his desk when she came back in. She looked at him lovingly.

"I feel uninformed." He explained."You're really not coming to childbirth class with me are you?" She shook her head no. "You're going to make me go alone and look like a pervert." She nodded yes, smiling at his assesment. "Jordan, you should go."

"I'm going to be so drugged out during this child's birth they're going to have to scrape me off of the ceiling. I don't want to go to your pregnant womans AA." He rolled his eyes at her.

"Normal women go to childbirth classes. Normal women do not want to go directly to work upon release from the hospital after nearly dying." He lamented.

"Normal women do not marry cheese farmers from Wisconsin or get pregnant in elevators either. You're lucky I'm not normal.You wouldn' t change me if you could." He had to smile at that. She had him there.

"Fine. Don't go to the class, but I'm not taking you to the morgue." He raised his eyebrows and she made a face.

* * *

Jordan tiptoed into the livingroom, scattered with baby furniture and hospital gifts. She found what she was looking for. Woody, asleep in a pile of books. She picked up the notebook beside him. Everything from placental abruption to HELP syndrome was written about in great detail. He had little notes for Dr. Milar, stuff for Jordan to read about and some topics he wanted to ask Bug about. She leaned into him, brushing against his shoulder with her lips. 

"What's wrong?" He said suddenly sitting upright. She gave him a sympathetic look before rubbing his back reassuringly. "Jordan." He sounded so tired.

"Come to bed." She told him. "I missed you." He nodded, looking self conciously at the notebook and back up to her. She took his hand and pulled him back towards the bed.

"Did you-?"

"I just took it, it's fine." She said soothingly. "I'm fine."


	7. yeah everythings gonna be alright

"I mean it. I'm taking you home at lunch." He said firmly giving her a sideways glance. "No matter what."

"I know."

"Even if the most exciting, life altering. world saving case gets wheeled in, and you are the only ME on Earth who can crack the case, you're still going home at 12:30."

"I know."

"Do you remember the rules?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to obey the rules?"

"Yes. "

"You're going to take your-?"

"Woody! For God's sake, yes!" She finally exploded looking at him in irritation.

"It's good to see you exhibiting your amazing devotion to remaining calm, Jordan." He whispered, looking up at the ceiling of the elevator in a way that made her feel like knocking him into-. "I'm scared, Jordan."

Her defensive posture dropped off of her shoulders, and she wrapped her arms around him comfortingly; until the elevator stopped and opened into the morgue. She couldn't keep the smile from coming to her face, despite the look of panic on Woody's.

"Oh thank God, you're back." Bug said emphatically as he hurried down the hall to meet them, a stack of folders tucked under his arm. "Jordan I need you to-."

"Can we have a minute? Please?" Woody's voice was sharp. Bug saw his stiffness, realizing he may have been a little overzealous. He looked down at the floor distractedly. Jordan squeezed Woody's arm. "Sorry."

"That's okay." Bug told him meeting the detectives worried eyes. "We'll take good care of her Woody." As if to illustrate this, he shifted the pile of folders and took Jordan's stuff from Woody's shoulder, before moving towards her office. Jordan looked at him gently, letting her hand slid up his arm to his shoulder.

"You're right across the street." She reminded him.

"I was right across the room last time and couldn't do a damn thing." He whispered.

"And Bug knew exactly what to do." She said softly looking towards him.

He was standing in her office door. "Go to work. I'll be good. Go to work." She put her palm against his serious face and kissed him goodbye. He clenched his jaw. Walking back to the elevator. "Woody, I'll be good."

"Promise?" He asked looking lost.

"I swear." She shouted as the doors closed around him.

* * *

_Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have sworn_, she thought two hours later as she crept towards autopsy to see Bug's latest case for herself. Instead she saw Nigel.

"Nice try, Luv." He pointed to the red "X" on the door and shook his head. "No way."

"Come on.. not you too! I just want to take a look at the-." He took her arm and lead her back down the hall. He pointed at Lily's door and the big green circle on it.

"This is the farthest you can go." He informed her. "Detectives orders."

"Since when does Woody give orders around here?" She growled.

"Since we realized you can't be trusted to tell us when something's wrong with you." Sydney mused, joining them in the hall. She knew she deserved that one. She also knew anything she said to Sydney would find it's way back to Woody. She remained silent, the picture of calm.

_Report that back why don't you_, she challenged him in her head.

"Green circles only. If it has a red "X", walk away." Nigel instructed. "Everything beyond this point is "X"'ed, so…" He pointed over her shoulder and she begrudgingly went back down towards her office. Break room, circle. Family Lounge, X. Conference room, X. Records room, circle. Garret's office X. Jordan wondered who had made that decision. She skulked into her own office defeated.

* * *

"You've turned everyone against me." She whined into the phone when he called for about the eighth time in the last three hours.

"Only because I love you, Sweetheart." Woody chuckled. Sydney had all ready called and told him about her escape attempt. It had, surprisingly, made him laugh. It was nice to see her do something so Jordan like. "How you doing?"

"I'm okay." He listened to her defenses slip. "My back hurts." He resisted the urge to run across the street and take her home immediately.

"I'm sorry." He said evenly, clutching his pen tightly in his hand.

_She's fine.. she's fine.. she's fine.._

"Did you want to eat at home, or stop somewhere?" He asked softly.

"We should stop. We don't have anything." He knew that wasn't true, but he was determined not to aggravate her anymore today than he already had.

"What do you want to eat?" He went back to writing notes on post-it's to leave for his partner.

"Chinese food." She told him honestly, before laughing. "Breathe Woody, breathe. I'm just kidding."

"Ha ha." He spit at her, shaking his head. He hoped she hadn't heard the grin in his voice.

"How about we go to O'Mally's and have salad and hey maybe, just maybe, if you'll let me, a club sandwich?" It sounded more like a plea than a question. He stifled his impulse, again, to say that it was too smoky there and simply agreed into the phone.

"Okay. I'll see you in an hour?" He waited, biting his tongue.

"Aren't you going to ask me?" She said seductively. "You know you wanna.."

"I trust you, Jordan." He lied.

"If you trust me, then why does it look like a game of Hollywood Squares over here?" She teased. "Ask me."

"Jordan…" He was trying not to be pushy.

"Come on…" She goaded him using her most alluring tone.

"Fine what was it?" He rubbed his face with his hands

"90/60." He almost fell out of his chair.

"You're kidding me." This time there was no doubt she could hear his smile.

"I made Bug come in and take it again to be sure." She was smiling too. "See Detective? Work calms me, it puts me at ease. You should let me go back to full-."

"Jordan!" He warned, this was not even something to joke about and she knew it.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." She laughed.

"I know." He said softly. "I love you."

"See you in an hour?" One more hour, he was going to make it without rushing over there. Unbelievable.

"Yeah." He breathed slowly as she hung up. The first day was almost out of the way and he hadn't even needed to use the paper bag Lily had jokingly given him this morning on his way out the door. This was going to be okay.

As soon as the thought came into his head he wrapped his knuckles hard against his wooden desk. _Careful Hoyt_, he decided. _You still have an hour_.


	8. giving thanks

It was Thanksgiving, she had to keep telling herself that. She had to keep telling herself that this was important. She wanted this for her daughter. _Didn't she?_

She cast one last look back at her husband before reaching to ring the bell. Woody reached his arm over hers and opened the door.

"There they are!" She heard Lily's voice radiate through the room. "We were starting to worry!"

"Sorry. It takes me twice as long to do everything." She laughed, letting her eyes scan the familiar room for the first time in years. Then she saw her father, he smiled at her in his soft and gentle way, making her feel stupid for the outburst of drama she'd had with Woody over leaving the apartment. It had only been when he, calmly and lovingly, threatened to go with out her, that she had gone and gotten dressed. "Happy Thanksgiving, Dad."

"Hello Jordan. Thank you for coming." The sincerity in his voice was not lost on her. She felt guilty for taking this long. "How are you feeling, Sweetheart?" Okay, so that was still weird, the 'sweetheart' thing, but she'd live.

"Good, Dad. I'm really good." She gestured to her round stomach that had seemed to pop out over night.

"You look beautiful." She knew that look. It was the look that said 'just like your mother'. She wasn't sure how that made her feel. "Hi, Son." He called to Woody in a fatherly tone that made Jordan want to cry. She knew they were close now. She knew they spoke often despite her own distanced observation.

"Hi Dad." Now that surprised her, her eyes widening before a slow and unsure smile tugged at her lips. Her eyes darted to Lily who sat hand in hand with Jeffery on the sofa.

"Hey guys." She said sweetly. "Where is everyone else?" As if on queue, Bug and Nigel appeared from the kitchen bickering over the constancy of cranberry sauce in a way only they could. In the background, she could make out alien girl-.

_No_ Jordan thought sternly. _She has a name_.

She saw _Natalie_ stirring a pot on the stove shaking her head back and forth. She couldn't believe Nigel Townsen had kept a girlfriend for a whole year. More shocking was that it had been a girl who had formerly been convinced that her boyfriend had been kidnapped by aliens.

_But hey_, thought Jordan. _This was Nigel_.

"Hey," Her husbands soft whisper caught her off guard. Somewhere along the way he had handed off the pies he'd made and taken off his coat. He was now attempting to pull hers off as well. "Let me take that." He pulled at the little black bag that carried her faithful blood pressure cuff and charting book. She looked at him now. His warm eyes crinkling as he smiled at what she decided, must have been a loving expression on her face. He leaned in and kissed her lips before taking her bag and coat away with his own.

"Happy Thanksgiving." She followed Garret's voice until her eyes found him sitting in a chair by the fireplace.

"Hey Stranger." She smiled at him, trying to keep her eyes from roaming to the drink in his hand. She blinked away the doubt that was forming in her mind. "It's good to see you. I barely even see you at work anymore." _Since your office is has a giant X on it, that I have since found out was not put there by my husband._ She added to herself. "How are things?" _How are what? _He nodded.

"Things are good, Jordan. How are your things?" _Shit could this get anymore awkward? When did this become so freaking awkward?_

"Still hanging in there." She smiled, stupidly, thanking God that Lu and Matt stumbled in the door when they did. "Hey, you found it!" She rushed over and took the dish from Matt's hand. "Oh um, guys this is my dad, Max Cavanaugh. Dad this is-. Thanks, Lil." She muttered as her friend took the dish and hurried to the kitchen. "This is Woody's partner, Tallulah Simmons, and Detective Matt Seely."

"Nice to meet you both. Who'd they partner you up with down there Detective?" She guessed that Woody had explained that they all had partners now, after all the cops shoot last year. Woody's included. Although he was the only survivor. The thought of that still sent chills up her spine.

"Detective Melisenda Santana." Matt answered, butchering the girls lovely Hispanic name, bringing Jordan back to the present.

"She's relatively new too, Dad." Woody said coming up behind him. _Dad_. Jordan tried to get used to that quickly. "There isn't really anyone there from your days."

"You were a cop?" Lu said brightly with her unknowing enthusiasm. Jordan wished for a second that she could see her father through someone else's eyes. Anyone else's eyes.

"Guys? Oh! Hey, Jordan." Sydney smiled at her. "Um I could use some help in here." Woody started to move forward but Jordan waved him off wanting nothing more than to get out of this room.

"Hey who's with all the stiffs?" Matt asked, seeing Sydney.

"You know Matt, we do exist out side of the morgue." Bug told stiffly, growing sick of that question. "Besides we have an intern. She works the holidays now."

"Finally." Sydney called walking back into the kitchen. Jordan followed, catching site of Garret emptying his mystery drink as she walked by.

* * *

Woody watched the clock cautiously, this was stressing him out. He knew it was stressing her out. He knew that she only had ten minutes left before she had to check her blood pressure and he knew that she would kill him if he mentioned that right now. Instead, he sat on the couch between Max and Matt as they watched football with more enthusiasm than Woody felt was really necessary.

She was at the kitchen table with Lu and Lily going over Lily's wedding plans and hair styles and the latest developments in bridesmaids dresses. Bug stood withering at the kitchen counter trying to look uninterested and not really listening to Garret's ongoing story about something that Woody couldn't understand from here. He was guessing by Sydney's face, wasn't all that interesting up close either.

Natalie was taking instruction from an ecstatic Nigel on the difference between American and European Football. The clock kept moving.

After an eternity, he heard Jordan's watch beep at her leaned in to see if she'd gotten up. She was already in the doorway when her eyes met his and she scowled at him quickly before motioning him to join her in the den. He practically levitated from the couch when he rose. Matt moved around Woody to keep his eyes on the game as he stumbled out from between them.

"Wanna do me?" She asked pulling her sweatshirt off. He rolled his eyes at her and she grinned at him, before he started laughing hysterically. She had on one of the shirts that Lu had gotten her. It said 'sex huh? who knew?' She had to look down to see what he was laughing at, before she pushed him back a little, pressing the cuff into his outstretched hands. He knew he didn't like for him to do it.

She had almost killed Sydney for getting him the digital test cuff. She had quickly tired of his late night checks, he was glad when she'd started sleeping through his paranoia.

"How's it going?" He asked her pushing the cuff up her sleeve and pressing the button that inflated the automatic cuff. He watched the numbers fall slowly on the digital read. "You having fun?"

"Sure. I see you and _Dad _are getting along famously." He smirked at her, he'd wondered how quickly she'd pick up on that. "I'm glad that you've had a chance to reestablish your bond with _Dad_."

"Okay Jordan we're done." He told her.

"With my pressure check? Or our conversation?" She asked with feigned innocence.

"Both." He laughed. "You're perfect, as always." He said slyly, pressing his lips to hers.

"Am I interrupting?" Max's voice called from the door. "Is everything all right? Can I come in? I'm not threatening the health and safety of my unborn granddaughter am I?" Woody watched Jordan's face break into a grin. She placed her fingers up to her neck acting like she was taking her pulse.

"Nope. I'm still not dead." Jordan said morbidly. Max shook his head, Woody just kissed her temple. He was used to this. For the last week, when ever she found him taking her blood pressure at three am, she'd mumble she was still alive.

"Jordan. I have something's for you." Max walked over to the other side of his old walnut desk and picked up the box he and Woody had put together last Tuesday. "I was going to save it until Christmas, but.." Woody felt her tense, thinking he was about to say he'd be gone by then. He pulled her closer to his body. "I can't wait." Max finished his sentence, Jordan let out a long slow breath.

Max dropped the box on the desk top. Pulling out a soft and frilly pink dress that had made Woody cry when he had first seen it. He'd pictured his wife as an infant sleeping in the arms of her mother in frill and lace. Jordan clapped her hand to her mouth when Max held it up for her.

"We brought you home in this Jordan." He remembered, tears creeping into his own eyes. "I would be honored if you wanted to bring your daughter home in it too." She didn't speak, she just nodded before walking around the desk and leaning into Max's body.

He seemed unsure at first what to do, but then Woody watched him carefully loop his arms around her, pressing his lips against her forehead. He smiled at Max's now fully damp eyes and silently walked out of the den. Letting them have the moment he'd been waiting for.


	9. giving ultimatiums

"Yeah. No, Dad it's fine. Really? No. I think it's a good idea." Garret watched her lean her head back and look at the ceiling. "If that's really what you want to do. Yeah, no you can run it by him tomorrow. Dad I have to go. We're having lunch together, my last day of work before maternity leave." She looked up and saw Garret in the doorway. She nodded her head along with the phone. "Dad, I need to go. Okay. Yeah, I love you too. Okay. Bye."

"What's Max up to?" Garret asked as she looked back up at him.

"He's getting an apartment in Southie." She tossed her hands up in the air. "He and Woody have been talking about us buying the house." She shook her head. "We'd have to completely gut it. It needs so much updating. I don't know. There's no way they could have it ready in six weeks. I guess we could stay in the apartment for a few more months, but we barely fit now with all the baby stuff and-." She stopped, watching him smirk. "Did you want something Garret?"

"Lily wanted to know if you were ready to eat or wait for Woody." She looked at her watch. "No. He'll.. he'll be here, lets give him another.." Garret looked up suddenly as Detective Hoyt rushed in.

"Hey sorry. I had the craziest…" Garret watched him look at Jordan's eager face and stop talking. "I had some stuff to finish up." Jordan's eyes rolled into her head, Garret laughed.

He watched as Woody scooted past him and went to his wife.

"I'll tell you all about it when you are officially on leave." He kissed her cheek. "Did you talk to Dad?" She nodded. "What do you think?"

"I don't know, Honey. I can't think about that right now." Garret backed out of the doorway and started towards the conference room, nearly bumping into Renee Walcott.

"Garret." He watched her study him. He hadn't seen her much since the Myers trial. Since the DWI. "I wanted to say goodbye to Jordan."

_When did Jordan and Renee become-?_ Garret shook the thought out of his head, he had to stop trying to remain involved. He had to just let her go she'd grown up, she was married, there was no reason to...

"Garret?" She leaned in looking at him intently. "Oh for Christ Sake, Garret are you drunk?"

"Let it go Renee. I'm not on the clock anymore." He growled.

"I don't care whether or not you're on the-." She began grabbing his arm. Then her eyes snapped up quickly when she heard Woody and Jordan approaching. "This isn't over."

Garret set his jaw.

"Renee." Jordan smiled at her. Garret shook his head slightly in confusion before he saw Woody's sharp blue eyes examining him. "I'm glad you came."

"I couldn't let my _favorite_ ME go on maternity leave with out saying good luck." She teased Jordan, smiling in her sassiest way. Garret noticed she was breathless, still gathering her thoughts from their conversation. That's when Garret noticed Woody was still studying him. His face took on a remorseful, almost piteous, look. He hovered over Jordan protectively moving her down the hall away from Macy.

"Thank you for the great pants. I would have never been able to get dressed at all with out your stuff, Renee." She stopped walking when she realized Woody had, looking up at him.

"Go ahead. I forgot to tell Lu something I'm going to give her a call." Jordan nodded. Woody watched her walk into the room and waited until the door closed. He walked back to Garret.

"Look Dr. M…"

"Woody don't start in on me-."

"I want you to stay away from my wife for a while." He said honestly. Garret was about to ask him what he thought Jordan would say about that, when he realized, that was the kind of comment that made Woody want to keep her away from him. "Dr. Macy, you were always there for Jordan, hell for all of us, so do us all a favor, okay? Get cleaned up before we all forget what a great guy you used to be."

"Who the hell do you-." He shook his head.

"Your little bottle down the sink routine didn't convince me, all right." He shook his head. "I know how it is to be stuck so deep in something you forget that there was ever anything else. It almost cost me Jordan. It could cost you everyone. It could cost you your job. Get some help. Get.. something. If not for you? Do it for these people. These people need you, my wife needs you."

"For what!" His voice was louder than he expected. "What do they need me for? What could _your wife_ possibly need me for?"

Woody blinked in confusion before a slow look of realization took him over.

"Is that what this is? Some ridiculous jealousy that these people have finally gotten lives outside of this building?" He looked at Garret with disgust, shaking his head. "Some kind of sick codependent delusion?" Garret wanted to yell at him, tell him he didn't know what the hell he was talking about. He wanted to tell him how it was so much more than that, but he couldn't.

"Hoyt-." Garret watched Woody's face take on a hurt expression, like his mentor had betrayed him. He was so sick of that expression. He'd never asked to be their damn mentor.

"I have to be there for my wife." He interrupted sharply. "She expects you to be there for her too. Are you going to be able to do that or not?" He turned away before Garret had a chance to speak. Even after how much he'd had to drink, Garret caught Woody's meaning. He followed him down the hall wordlessly.

It was Renee's worried gaze and Jordan's suspicious one that caught his eye as he looked around the room at his true family, but it was Woody's intense gaze he felt boaring into the side of his head.

* * *

Jordan found her missing husband in her office, as the party begain to break up.

"Hey," She slipped her arms around him from behind, and he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. "Where are you?" He looked a million miles away. She saw the smirk in his reflection from the window, before he turned her awkwardly into his arms. He looked down at her stomach as it created it's necessary distance between them..

"Get out of my way, kid." He huffed, softly running his hand across the roundness of her shirt.

"Sorry Daddy, we're a packaged deal." She said remorsefully pressing her head into his shoulder. He led her to the couch sitting them down and pulling her legs across his lap and wrapping his arms tightly around her shoulders.

"Not for much longer." He reminded smiling briefly, before she watched it fall away.

"What is it?" She asked sweetly her fingertips brushing across his jaw line.

"I'm just thinking." He told her his eyes gazing back towards the dark window.

"Are you going to tell me about what, or am I going to be left guessing?" He smirked at her question.

"We both know how disastrous that can be, Jordan." She shook her head. "You'd think with those killer crime solving instincts of yours you'd be able to figure out what I'm thinking. No matter how many times you used to try though, you almost always got it wrong."

"I've gotten better at it." She told him, he looked down at her legs before he moved his gaze up to her. It was his 'please understand me Jordan' look. She hadn't seen it in a long time. She cupped her hand around his jaw line, tracing his cheek with her hand. "Want me to give it a try?" He nodded wordlessly, not knowing why he was trying so hard not to sink into her touch. "Garret?" His eyes closed slowly, when he opened them she could see his concern for her. "Woody, I'm not oblivious to the fact it's still going on." She traced her thumb across his lips. "You don't have to protect me from that." He leaned into her hand, she slid it back through his hair and pulled him down to her shoulder. "Renee knows too. We've all been double checking his autopsies. If you're worried about the fall out-."

"I'm not worried about work, Jordan." He told her honestly.

"I know." She kissed his head. "You can't save everyone. You can't protect me from everything either. Things are going to hurt me, people I trust may betray me. That doesn't scare me anymore." She whispered. He looked up from her shoulder. "I have you and I know you'll never hurt me or break my trust. I know you'll always be there for me."

"Who are you? And what have you done with Jordan Cavanaugh?" He whispered.

"Me? I'm Jordan Hoyt." She smiled at him. "That other girl grew up."

"I hear she married a hottie." He said smirking into her body.

"He's incredibly humble too." She finished.


End file.
